


Steps Full of Light

by Allekha



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Dancing, Friendship, Gen, Growing Up, Ice Skating, Lessons, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:07:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25872616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allekha/pseuds/Allekha
Summary: Three skating lessons that Yuuri, Yuuko, and Takeshi went through together over the years: learn-to-skate, trying out ice dance, and teaching kids themselves.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri & Nishigori Takeshi & Nishigori Yuuko
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24
Collections: Rare Ships!!! on BINGO 2020





	Steps Full of Light

**Author's Note:**

> Rare Ships on Bingo squares: Katsuki Yuuri & Nishigori Takeshi & Nishigori Yuuko + Classes and lessons

Yuuko likes Minako-sensei's studio. She likes the big mirrors and the light and Minako-sensei herself, always full of energy and enthusiasm for every lesson. She likes the shy boy in her class, even though she doesn't know him that well and even though she's pretty sure he's the favorite. Yuuri doesn't try to steal attention – doesn't make a big deal out of anything, really. He just comes to class and he dances like the rest of them.

When Minako-sensei tells her that Yuuri is going to try ice skating lessons, Yuuko promises to help him if he needs anything before Minako can ask. He'll be taking the same learn-to-skate class that she passed a year ago; maybe she can show him stuff during the practice time! She's never gotten to teach someone before. She's always been one of the little kids at the rink admiring the skills of the older skaters.

Now _she'll_ be the one getting looked up to. The thought excites Yuuko so much that she skips up the steps to the rink on Saturday morning.

Minako is there to help Yuuri with the fit of his skates and make sure he has them tied properly. For a ballet teacher, she knows a lot about skating. She knows about Yuuko's favorite skaters on the TV and sometimes she tapes competitions for her. She's the _best_.

After he's ready, she drops Yuuri off at the side of the rink, like all the parents do. Yuuko, already on the ice, comes over, ready to be a good teacher. "See, Yuuko-chan is here," Minako tells him as he looks at the ice dubiously. "You have half an hour to get used to it before the lesson starts. You'll do fine."

Yuuko smiles at him and holds her hands out. Yuuri frowns up at her and frowns down at the ice – but then he clings to the wall and steps on, one skate and then the other. When he doesn't fall right away, she can see him relax. He reaches tentatively for her offered hands.

It's fun teaching him – "You push off with the inside of the blade and balance on the other foot – yeah, like that – see, you're doing it!" Yuuko finds that she only needs to hold one of his hands, and soon Yuuri is confident enough that he lets go on his own. Some of the other little kids cry and refuse to try moving, and others wriggle forward with wobbly ankles, but Yuuri is skating.

Sure, he falls a couple of times. But when he does, he gets back up and gets this funny look on his face like he's trying really hard not to do it again. Yuuko laughs and shows him how he's supposed to fall, too.

When it's time to split into lessons, they wave good-bye, and Yuuko catches up to Takeshi on the other side of the rink.

"Who's he?" he asks, peering around her at Yuuri.

"His name's Yuuri. He's in my ballet class, so I was helping him. Not bad for his first day, right?" She's proud of him for doing so well and not being a crybaby, and proud of herself for being such a good mentor.

Takeshi makes a disgruntled noise. After their lessons, Yuuri comes over to her, all smiles, to show how he's already started learning how to stop. Takeshi promptly runs him over and insults him, and Yuuko screams at him for that. Yuuri is sweet and shy and being pudgy is no reason to bully him – only Yuuri picks himself up and starts wailing back at Takeshi instead of collapsing into a nervous heap, and in that instant she figures out that Yuuri really, really liked his first lesson.

~!~

At thirteen, Yuuri is still small for his age and still figuring out all his jumps. But after a sudden good season, he gets invited to a national training camp during the summer. So does Yuuko.

(Takeshi does not. But Takeshi doesn't skate as much as they do and he doesn't go to their coach in Fukuoka for private lessons and he doesn't want to watch competitions with them a lot of the time. Still, he comes to the rink and they go to the same school, so they see him a lot. They're friends now, which confuses Yuuri sometimes.)

While they're at the camp, they work on all kinds of things, from ballet lessons to spin sessions. It's intimidating to be together with so many older and better skaters. They're skaters who go to international competitions. Some of them even win medals. It's hard to imagine he'll be one of them some day, but Yuuri dreams of it every night.

The strangest thing that happens during the camp is that one of the coaches – Yuuri doesn't know her – pulls him and Yuuko aside and asks if they've ever tried ice dancing. When they both shake their heads, she says she can introduce them to it for the next few evenings, when there's no other camp activities, if they're willing to try it.

Yuuko likes trying everything once. Yuuri likes dancing. So they both agree.

Yuuri doesn't really know what ice dancing _is_ , exactly, even though he watches the competition segments once in a while. All he knows is that the ice dancers move quickly and smoothly, and they do lifts but not the scary kind that the pairs skaters do, and they don't jump. He doesn't know anyone who does it.

It's not at all like ballet lessons with Minako. The first thing the coach teaches them is how to do a hold. It sounds like it should be easy enough, but it's weird grabbing Yuuko's hand when they've grown out of hand-holding, and as soon as they get halfway into the right position, the coach shoves them closer together.

Yuuko is fifteen. She's not quite a woman yet, but she's not a little girl anymore, either. It's so awkward to be pressed up against the back of her hip; Yuuri stares forward and wills his cheeks not to burn. It's just dancing, he tells himself. People who don't even know each other dance this close together. He thinks.

The coach shows them how to do a few things together to start them on getting used to it, and then the next day she begins teaching them their first dance. Yuuri picks up the steps faster than Yuuko, and the timing, but leading someone in a dance while skating is way harder than he expects. They fall out of sync a lot, Yuuko trips over his laces one time, and when he has a stupid stumble, he brings her down with him.

"I think I'll stay in singles," Yuuko says when the last lesson is done. "It's easier, and I like jumping too much."

He can't nod in agreement fast enough.

When they get home, they tell everyone about the lessons. Their parents want to see the one picture someone took of them practicing, and Minako bemoans that they won't kickstart an ice dance revolution in Japan. And when Yuuri comes to the rink the next day – Yuuko elects to stay home and sleep in after the trip – Takeshi asks him to show him.

"Why?" Yuuri asks, startled.

"'cause," Takeshi says with a shrug. "Seems fun."

It's almost as awkward to try it out with Takeshi as it was with Yuuko. Yuuri isn't a natural teacher, and he barely knows what he's doing himself. At least Takeshi is a guy. Yuuri sets him as the lead since he's bigger, and takes the follower position since he's smaller. Just like him, Takeshi struggles to both keep up and not race ahead of him on curves.

But after a while, they kind of get it to work. Yuuri digs out the CD the coach gave them and plays the waltz. "One, two, three," he counts for Takeshi, since music isn't his strongest point.

He steps them both through the dance, too. There's the beginning, the easy part. "Left, right, left, right," and then comes the first part of the dance pattern: "Progressive – swing roll—"

They both curve onto their outside edges with one foot and swing the other in front of them. Not only are their raised legs completely mismatched, Takeshi slingshots around him so hard they almost fall over.

It takes work to bring their movements even close to something resembling a dance. But Takeshi keeps asking him to practice, though only when Yuuko isn't at the rink.

Yuuri doesn't get why until he arrives one morning to hear the waltz music playing. On the rink, Takeshi and Yuuko are going through the dance. They're slow and tentative and not in time with the music, but Yuuko is smiling, and Yuuri thinks they make a good pair, more than he and Yuuko did. Takeshi isn't shy about holding her at all, and he's a better height.

Maybe the coach should have asked Takeshi instead. But Yuuko doesn't want to do ice dance, and Takeshi's strong point was never skating skills or grace – what he's good at is pure power and guts.

They don't seem to have noticed him yet, so Yuuri stays quiet and watches them as they turn their slow and wobbly waltz around the rink.

~!~

Takeshi gets the idea when Yuuri admits that he doesn't have any plans for the space of time between when he graduates from high school and when he needs to be at Kii Daigakuin to matriculate. "I guess I'll go home?" his voice says over the phone; about a year ago, he moved to Wakayama to train with a new coach. "Um, and practice, of course...."

And let his mom stuff him with katsudon and let Minako run him ragged in the studio, Takeshi knows. But that isn't enough to fill a few weeks.

He tells Yuuko about his new idea when they get off the phone. Despite the sleep deprivation they've both been running on for the past year – three babies has been a _lot_ – her eyes light up at his suggestion. They talk to the rink management when they remember to, and then all that's left is for Yuuri to agree.

They tag-team him on the next phone call, using both of their enthusiasm, Takeshi's loudness and Yuuko's sparkling eyes. Yuuri stutters, Yuuri tries to think of reasons why they don't actually want him to – but in the end, he agrees to host a master class at the Ice Castle.

He _is_ the new Japanese champion, after all. Nobody expected it of him, and next year he'll probably face a tougher field, one less thinned about by injuries. It'll be a hard title to keep. But it's his, for this year, and that'll make the class a success even in Hasetsu. There will be money for the rink and money for him, to buy him all the ice time he needs to stay on top.

Minako helps with the posters. They show up at her studio, in shop windows, at the train station. When Yuuri steps off the train months later – now with a Junior World silver to add to his collection – he blushes on seeing them.

"I've never taught anyone before," he says, staring at the poster.

"You taught me how to ice dance," Takeshi reminds him, hitting him on the back of his shoulder. Yuuri winces; Yuuko giggles. Takeshi grabs his suitcase before he can protest.

Hiroko welcomes him home with katsudon, and he and Yuuko return to Yuutopia in the evening after they pick up the triplets from her parents so that Yuuri can meet them. Axel can already walk, while Lutz and Loop can crawl at a decent clip. Yuuri takes them in with big eyes, and Axel plops right down in his lap. "Do you want to come to the master class, too?" Yuuri asks her, and she laughs.

"She'll be on skates soon enough," Takeshi says. He has no idea how well they'll take to it, but he hopes they like it. He can't wait to hold their little hands and help them onto the ice for the first time.

The day of the class, Yuuri steps on the ice early; they leave him be with his figures, and deal with the participants and parents as they arrive. Yuuko coos over small children with tiny skates. Takeshi is glad to see more than a few teenage boys show up. Minako appears with a ticket for herself and the old pair of tan skates she always wears on the odd occasion she comes to the rink.

When the event starts, Yuuri is too nervous and too quiet. It takes Takeshi repeating what he says in his booming voice a few times for him to get the hint to speak up so the whole crowd can hear him.

Things gets easier once they get moving. Yuuri demonstrates various exercises and elements, and Takeshi helps point out people who need assistance or who could make the most use of advice. He pitches in the most with the younger kids – after a year of teaching learn-to-skate, he's picking up how to teach them. As he dodges between skaters, he can hear Yuuri trying to correct and encourage the teenagers and adults.

It's a bit chaotic, despite his and Yuuko's best efforts, but by the end of it, Yuuri is speaking louder and standing straighter, and Takeshi thinks everyone has had a good time. They herd everyone off the ice when the time is finished, and then comes the part that Yuuko was the most excited for.

She puts on a CD, and everyone crowds against the barrier, and Yuuri gives them a treat: front-row seats to the same free program that served Yuuri so well this season. He really is excellent, more so than the last time Takeshi got to see him skate in person. There's something special about his arms, now, and there's a part where his entire body is still and gliding across the ice and only his head turns to the notes, a mature and quiet moment of beauty. He's such a far cry from the little kid who Takeshi took joy in knocking over back in the day.

Part of him is afraid Yuuri will crumble before the crowd, as he has so many times. But maybe some excited kids are nothing compared to Nationals and Junior Worlds, because Yuuri does brilliantly, with only a single bobble on his opening jump combination. Yuuko bounces next to him through the whole program, vibrating faster the closer it gets to the end. Takeshi can't blame her; it's a performance worthy of the Japanese champion, and his heart swells with pride for Yuuri's progress. He's worked so hard for it.

Afterward, when all the autographs have been given out and questions answered and the crowd made to disappear, Takeshi leans on the boards next to Yuuri and says, "Not bad for your first one."

"I couldn't have done it if you weren't helping," Yuuri admits. "You're a lot better with the kids."

"It's 'cause I have them now! And also all the learn-to-skate I've been coaching."

"Are the triplets going to have you two as coaches, then?"

Takeshi grins at him for an answer. Yuuko jogs back over. "You'll have to come do another one when they're old enough to remember," she tells Yuuri. "Or at least a private lesson!"

"I thought we were trying to sign him on as their coach?" Takeshi jokes.

"Shh! You know how Yuuri is. We have to talk him into it slowly!"

Yuuri laughs and pushes off from the boards to spin around a bit. He looks like he wants to do his program again; he looks like he wants to do a jump session right now. Takeshi never had that drive. That's fine. Yuuri's got his thing and he's got his. Three little girls is enough for anyone to ask for.

"I'll come give them a lesson if they like skating," he says. "But I'm not promising coaching or choreography."

"You aren't _yet_ ," Yuuko tells him, and he smiles a little more.

It might be a while – university and his career will keep him busy. Takeshi doesn't know if he'll be back next year, or not until he graduates, doesn't know how many competitions they'll watch cheering for him with the girls on their laps before they see him in Hasetsu again. Could be a few years until he has time to visit.

But the triplets have to grow up a little first anyway, and Takeshi is definitely going to hold him to that promise whenever the day does come that Yuuri returns home.


End file.
